Home Help: Color me happy

Staff reports

Wednesday

Sep 29, 2010 at 12:01 AMSep 29, 2010 at 8:28 PM

Weekly home help with items on painting your home, "greening" your roof, caring for cut flowers and more.

Whether you’ve moved into a new home or you're looking to spruce up your existing decor, consider experimenting with color. Paint is the No. 1 do-it-yourself project because it's easy, affordable and instantly refreshes the look of any room.

"Painting can refresh or change the look and feel of an entire room with a little planning and know-how and for less than $100," says remodeling expert and DIY Network host Amy Matthews. "However, not everyone knows where to start or how to achieve the look they desire. That's why preparation is so important."

Here’s a checklist with everything you need for a perfect paint job, regardless of skill or experience:

Painter's tape. Tape with UV resistance will usually improve results if you are planning on using multiple coats.

Once you have your supplies, it's time to prepare the surface you will be painting:

Fill cracks and holes with spackle. Sand after it has dried to make smooth. Then dust and clean walls with a towel or vacuum cleaner.

Apply painter's tape. Slowly pull the tape off the roll and avoid stretching it. Press down on the tape with a putty knife or a 5-in-1 tool. Use a credit card if you don't have one of these.

Now you are ready to paint. Here are a few tips to keep in mind:

When using a roller, paint in 3-foot by 3-foot sections. Paint in long strokes using a zigzag pattern and go back over areas that aren't fully covered.

Always start in the highest areas so drips can be smoothed as you go. Once paint has dried, remove painter's tape at a 45-degree angle and at a moderate speed.

Once the paint has dried and the tape has been removed, assess your work. If you're satisfied, you can move on to more challenging paint projects with creative applications, such as faux painting or stripes.

-- ARA

Home-Selling Tip: Find the price that is right

Setting the right price for your home is essential. Expert appraisers consider location, proximity to schools and other facilities, the size of the lot and the condition of the home when determining cost per square foot.

You can determine the appropriate price for your home by considering these factors and the prices that similar homes have sold for in your area. Remember, house maintenance and trendy amenities will always bring a higher price.

-- Century 21 Real Estate

How To: Unclog your sink

Sinks get clogged or backed up when grease, hair and soap get trapped in the drain line or clog the trap. Instead of spending money on drain cleaners, try to clear the sink yourself by cleaning off the sink stopper or plunging the sink.

What you’ll need to plunge your sink:

Pliers

Plunger

Rag

First, remove the stopper from the sink. Some stoppers pull directly out, while others need to be turned counterclockwise. Older stoppers may require you to first remove the pivot rod from under the sink (unscrew the nut, then pull out the rod) before you can remove the stopper.

Then, stuff a wet rag in the sink overflow opening (the small hole in your sink bowl), which prevents the air from escaping. Place the plunger over the drain and run enough water to cover the rubber part of the plunger. Begin to plunge rapidly until the clog is removed.

– HomeDepot.com

Did You Know … Grants for housing-related health

In an effort to reduce housing-related hazards for low-income families, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has recently approved $19.6 million in grants. The goals are to increase housing-related health and help control asthma in federally assisted multifamily homes.

The money is available through four different HUD grant programs: Healthy Homes Production, Asthma Interventions in Public and Assisted Multifamily Housing, Lead Technical Studies and Healthy Homes Technical Studies.

Home Improvements: Make your rooftop ‘green’

Finding ways to go green may be as simple as looking up –– to your roof. Your rooftop keeps the elements outside and the warmth inside. “Greening” your roof can mean protection for your family, saving money and helping the environment.

After you cut flowers from your garden, you want them to remain beautiful (and alive) for as long as possible. There are various tips and myths out there that claim to prolong the life of your bouquet, so find one that works for you.

University of California Extension specialists claim that 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, 1 tablespoon of sugar and one-fourth teaspoon of bleach mixed in 1 quart of warm water will do the trick. New research presented in The Cut Flower Quarterly summer 2010 edition says that disinfecting scissors or pruners between cuts with a 10 percent bleach solution will make flowers stay fresh for longer.

-- National Gardening Association

Backyard Buddies: Scorpion venom helps humans

The scorpion is notoriously known for its toxic venom and most people don’t want to mess with it –– unless you’re a scientist. Researchers are now dissecting venom from scorpions (and other insects), decoding its secrets and creating chemical versions of their own. The synthetic concoctions can be made into pesticides, cancer treatments, painkillers and more.

“This is one of the major resources that is naturally available to us,” says Raymond John St. Leger, an entomologist at the University of Maryland-College Park. “It looks like [venom has] a very bright future, much of which we can’t predict.”

-- ScienceNews.org

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